


The Only Living Boy in Highlands

by starlessdeco



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Cute, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Light Angst, POV Sirius Black, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin Friendship, Young Remus Lupin, Young Sirius Black
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:34:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29058321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlessdeco/pseuds/starlessdeco
Summary: 29th of December, 1971: Sirius left 12 Grimmauld Place after a dismal few days of Christmas break. Now he is all alone in Gryffindor tower, at least for now.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Kudos: 13





	The Only Living Boy in Highlands

_I get the news I need on the weather report_   
_Oh, I can gather all the news I need on the weather report_   
_Hey, I've got nothing to do today but smile_   
_De-doh-n-doh-de-doh_   
_And here I am_   
_The only living boy in New York_

Sirius was grateful Minerva McGonagall wasn’t the hovering type. After it had been made clear his parents knew where he was, she had visited the Gryffindor tower once; to ask him if the house elves had started bringing fresh towels to the dorms. Which they had, and she probably knew. After that, she had left him alone. And alone he was.

Gryffindor tower was empty, and all the other houses only had one or two seventh years sleeping in them. Some of the teachers were there of course. Sirius wondered if they even had families, or was all of their life inside the castle walls. He supposed his was now too.

He had come in during the early hours of Christmas eve morning, gotten himself soaking wet and was now sniffling more every day. He considered visiting the hospital wing for some Pepperup Potion, but decided not to bother Madam Pomfrey. The flu would pass on its own. And at least his sniffling made some noise.

Sirius wasn’t one to talk to himself. He tried on the second day, but after doing commentary about his attempts to levitate James’ earmuffs down the staircase without looking, he had just felt weird and awkward. Then he tried to speak to his friends. He talked to James and answered as James. His James was far too sarcastic. Remus was even harder. His Remus didn’t know what to say, and the real Remus always did.

There was noise during the morning post. For five days straight his family owl had dropped a menacingly red envelope beside his morning tea. The owl never came close to Sirius and looked terrified of him, his mother had probably something to do with this.

The first day he had left the letter alone and waited for the howling to start on its own. But now he just flipped them open and sipped his tea as the teachers looked at him with various stages of worry. The other students didn’t look anymore after the third letter, just covered their ears.

Being alone was surely boring and made him restless, but the quiet made him feel like he was losing his mind. He kept the record player on at all times, even slept with it on. He went through all his records and then kept coming back to ‘Electric Warrior’ and ‘Led Zeppelin III’. But it wasn’t enough. He needed human voices, voices of people living and just existing, he even wished Peter would be there to snore at night.

Sirius kept thinking about Regulus. He had let him down. Regulus was much better at dealing with their parents, so much better that it scared Sirius sometimes. But he was still his little brother and he wanted to believe they were a team. Reg would be okay, and next year he would come to Hogwarts and maybe he would be sorted to Gryffindor. Sirius didn’t exactly believe this, but he liked to entertain the idea from time to time.

He flipped ‘Bridge over Troubled Water’ over. It was one of the records he hadn’t presented to Remus straight away, because Simon & Garfunkel might be something Remus thought was uncool. And Remus had been so impressed with his collection so far. His set of records was worth of admiration, there was no doubt, so he didn’t want to stain that image.

“Sirius!” Remus’ distinctive voice called out. Sirius spun around and bent down a bit to see to the door from behind the beds. Remus was standing there, holding a suitcase and wearing a new forest green woollen sweater.

“Hey mate!” Sirius grinned at his friend but felt like he could cry.

“What are you doing here?” Remus asked, walking over to his bed and setting his things down. He looked happy but quite tired.

“Couldn’t take it. Came here on Christmas eve”, he explained casually as he lifted the record, trying to be as inconspicuous as he could. He chose ‘Abbey Road’ instead, like the record had ended and he hadn’t just been going to the B-side.

“Christmas eve? Sirius are you okay”, Remus stopped getting things out of his suitcase and looked at him. Sirius felt the lump in his throat almost overtaking him for a moment, but then he extended his arms out and grinned again.

“All good”, he said, surprised at how stable his voice sounded, “why are _you_ here anyway? Were you at the Potters?”, he felt a twist of jealousy.

James had told him many times that he could come at any point. When he had stepped into the fireplace to leave Grimmauld Place he had considered it, but then already feeling miserable for himself decided against it, almost as a punishment. So, he had shouted out ‘Three Broomsticks’ instead, and walked up to the castle.

“I wasn’t, me and mum were at home”, Remus said, warmth in his voice, “and the day after tomorrow is the full moon”, he added. Sirius couldn’t help it but his expression dropped a bit. He was glad Remus had his mum but felt a weird feeling of anger about the second thing. He wasn’t angry at Remus he was angry for him. How dare the full moon take Remus from his mother.

“Oh”, he just said and felt like an idiot immediately after. He knew now, and Remus knew that he knew. So, he would have to learn to stomach any talk about it without flinching, without reacting. He had to learn to talk about the full moon like he talked with James about his secrets, about Evans. Maybe not the best allegory, Sirius thought to himself.

“Are you hungry? I haven’t eaten yet”, Remus asked. He didn’t seem to be bothered about Sirius’ poorly calculated reaction but he was far better than him at concealing his emotions.

“Ravished”, Sirius said, wondering if it was too late to say something, “can I come and visit you in the morning then?” he added anyways.

“You can try”, Remus suddenly grinned, “Pomfrey said you kept me up far too long last time, maybe you can borrow James’ cloak”

“I actually happen to know where the wanker hid it”, Sirius said mischievously. He went around Remus’ bed to Peter’s and dropped down to his knees. In the bed structures was a hollow space that no one would even think to put their hand in, if they didn’t know one of the most prized possessions of James Potter was up there. Sirius pulled out the silvery cloak.

“Potter’s dictatorship over the invisibility cloak shall end now!”, he said triumphantly and threw the cloak on Remus. The liquid-like fabric fell down clean over Remus’ long body and soon he was invisible. The other boy pulled the cloak down to unveil his laughing, floating head, and Sirius thought that it must have been the best noise in the world.


End file.
